Jordan type of an Artinian algebra, a survey

Abstract

We consider Artinian algebras $A$ over a field $\mathsf{k}$, both graded and local algebras. The Lefschetz properties of graded Artinian algebras have been long studied, but more recently the Jordan type invariant of a pair $(\ell,A)$ where $\ell$ is an element of the maximal ideal of $A$, has been introduced. The Jordan type gives the sizes of the Jordan blocks for multiplication by $\ell$ on $A$, and it is a finer invariant than the pair $(\ell,A)$ being strong or weak Lefschetz. The Jordan degree type for a graded Artinian algebra adds to the Jordan type the initial degree of ``strings'' in the decomposition of $A$ as a $\mathsf{k}[\ell]$ module. We here give a brief survey of Jordan type for Artinian algebras, Jordan degree type for graded Artinian algebras, and related invariants for local Artinian algebras, with a focus on recent work and open problems.